America interruptedIn the film “Girl Interrupted,” Winona Ryder plays an 18-year-old who enters a mental institution for what is diagnosed as borderline personality disorder. The year is 1967 and the country is in turmoil over Vietnam and civil rights. While lying on her bed one night and watching TV, she sees a news report about a demonstration. The narrator says something that might apply to today’s turmoil: “We live in a time of doubt. The institutions we onc...

A year of uncertainties2014 has been a year of anniversaries. It was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War — a war which many at the time saw as madness, and predicted that it would be the harbinger of a Second World War a generation later. 2014 was also the 70th anniversary of the fateful landing at Normandy that marked the beginning of the end of World War II. 2014 was likewise the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme...

My Child / My Student campaignLITTLE ROCK — Decades of research have shown that when parents are involved in their child’s education students have higher grades, better test scores, and higher graduation rates. Children also have better self-esteem, are more self-disciplined, and show higher aspirations and motivation toward school when parents are actively involved. And there are benefits for parents as well. Involvement helps parents to be more confident in their parenti...

Post-Amendment 94 ideasAn independent citizens’ commission has been formed under Amendment 94 to the Arkansas Constitution, approved by the voters in November to the surprise of many observers of state government, and one of its duties is to make changes in the way we pay legislators. Although many of those observers are nervous about turning over this authority to an appointed commission, the panel surely couldn’t come up with a worse system that we already have. P...

Roger Williams and separation of church, stateOver 400 years ago in 1603, Roger Williams was born in England. Twenty-eight years later he migrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in America. Banished from Massachusetts Bay as a dissident Puritan minister in the winter of 1635-36, he found refuge with the Narragansett Indians. Soon after, he founded a settlement at Providence (so named because Williams maintained it was the providence of God that saved his life in this period). Providence beca...

Cuba libre’!Is it possible to hold two seemingly contradictory thoughts about the president’s decision to partially end the half-century embargo against Cuba? Can one agree with conservative critics, from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), to Rush Limbaugh about how the Castro brothers are, apparently, getting everything they want and how the U.S. gets nothing but promises from a repressive regime that lies — and still back the president’s decision? I will try. P...

Who's responsible?The cold-blooded murder of two New York City policemen as they sat in their car is not only an outrage but also a wake-up call. It shows, in the most painful way, the high cost of having demagogues, politicians, mobs and the media constantly taking cheap shots at the police. Those cheap shots are in fact very expensive shots, not only to the police themselves but to the whole society. Someone once said that civilization is a thin crust over a ...

A new family's Merry ChristmasAs of Monday, there were 621 children across Arkansas whose parents’ rights have been terminated and who have no “forever family” with whom to share this Christmas. Unlike last year, Robert, 17, is not one of them. Instead, Robert is celebrating the holiday for the first time with Todd and Gwynn Harris, now known to him as Dad and Mom. All three names have been changed for this column. Robert’s biological parents’ rights were terminated in 201...

The great need for character educationCONWAY — Over the years there have been thousands, perhaps millions, of people who have made this comment, “I had rather see a good sermon than to hear one any day.” If you live here in my community, I have a good candidate that I would like to recommend to you. Now please do not misunderstand what I am saying. No one is perfect but they possess the attributes and qualities that our young people can look up to and learn from. We need that more...

Uncertainty surrounds gay marriage caseLITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Supreme Court’s biggest piece of unfinished business as it wraps up 2014 — whether the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional — is the one that will have the most far-reaching effects for the state. horny issue. With less than two weeks left in the year, justices have yet to issue a decision about the 2004 constitutional amendment and earlier state law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. And d...

Getting back in touch with old friendsOur amazing ability to communicate with people in faraway places has put me in touch this holiday season with some old friends and allowed me to make some new ones. Modern connectivity can be a blessing. This story goes back to Danner Hall on the campus of then-Arkansas State College in the mid-1960s and involved several friends who later went their own ways and at times lost track of each other. I’ve written previously about two of them — bri...

Gratitude and grace overcoming fearLITTLE ROCK — On Thanksgiving, I was invited to speak about the power of gratitude to the congregation of Little Rock’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. As we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, the central message of that day continues to hold strong: When your mind is set upon grace and gratitude, there is one thing you must not give in to, and that is fear. Fear saps your power faster than anything else. It creates doubt and distrust and insecuri...

'Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over'LITTLE ROCK — The month of December is one of the busiest on the nation’s roadways, and also one of the most dangerous. With the holidays coming up, there will be an increase in social events that involve alcohol, and data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that this results in an increase fatal drunk-driving crashes around the holidays. Arkansas State Police has joined other state and local law enforcement agencies ...

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State House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Tortured reasoningCritics and defenders of the harsh interrogation methods applied to captured terrorists can argue forever over whether those methods were “torture.” But any serious discussion of a serious issue — and surely terrorism qualifies as serious — has to move beyond semantics and confront the ultimate question: “Compared to what alternative?” If you knew that there was a hidden nuclear time bomb planted somewhere in New York City — set to go off toda...

Holidays and a mother's loveThis is my second Christmas season without my mother, and so far it’s been harder than the first. I had known that the first year would be hard, and all I really cared about was surviving it. Activity was my friend: My sister Kathy and I spent the fall wrapping up her estate, selling her house, sharing her prized possessions with family and friends. We talked every day. Much of our connection was activity-based: Was her account closed? Were th...

A vote for common senseCONWAY — One of the best compliments I have received in a long time came from the publisher of a weekly newspaper that runs this column in a small town in Western Kansas. The Spearville News has run my column for about four years now, and while the rate is very modest, the publisher has paid me for six months in advance from the beginning, and he sends me a check without a statement, usually with a brief note. When I received the last check, B...

The rules of war need updatingThe attack on a cafe in Sydney, Australia, by a self-described Islamic cleric with a long police record, left two hostages dead, along with the cleric, one Man Haron Monis. He was an Iranian refugee who enjoyed the hospitality and protection of the Australian government. That incident, which was televised worldwide, was quickly eclipsed by the murder of 145 people at an army-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan. Many of the dead were children. Pre...

Time is right for U.S. and CubaMEXICO CITY — After 53 years of hostility between the United States and Cuba, the timing to make amends was perfect for both governments. The breakthrough in U.S.-Cuban relations came with the release of American Alan Gross and an unnamed U.S. intelligence agent, and the freeing of three jailed Cuban agents. The longtime enemies announced they would move toward full diplomatic relations, and Washington said it would ease economic and travel re...

K through Job educationThe elected official in the state Capitol making the biggest impact next year will be Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson. The second most impactful elected official may be a 74-year-old grandmother with an agenda. That would be Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock. English spent her career in economic development and will use her chairmanship of the Senate Education Committee to try to change how Arkansas educates and develops its workers. She says t...

Keeping inmates from returningOne of the main reasons Arkansas’ prison system is so crowded that more than 2,500 state inmates are being held in county jails can be blamed on the fact that so many keep coming back for more punishment. After serving some time, generally about one-sixth of the sentence under good behavior rules, a state inmate is released. By that time the state has given him several chances to straighten up. However, state Department of Correction numbers s...